Fixed Oxygen system A320 Cockpit

[CMpilot1]

During cruise if you notice on your Door/Oxy ECAM page that the oxygen pressure is indicated as zero, what should your action be?

[TopBunk]

Been a while since I flew the A320 family, but the answer is pretty universal, imho .....

Personally, I would:
1. point it out to my colleague
2. as a precaution, get a couple (or more) of portable pax oxygen units into the flight deck
3. review the situation (en route MSA's, fuel, time to go, FL profile, previous tech log entries, call maintenance people for history and their thoughts, etc) and discuss the options available with company and colleague and formulate a plan

The plan would depend on the factors determined - it could be an indication fault. If and when terrain and fuel state permits, initiate a descent to a compromise FL, etc.

Questions back to you:

1. What would you do in your scenario?

2. Different Scenario: You are at FL350 mid Atlantic and the cabin crew report a fire in the cabin behind a panel. You know statistically that you might only have 15 minutes if the fire is not put out. What do you do?

[763 jock]

First thing, test the O2. If it flows for a few seconds, job done. If not, as per the above.

[mcdhu]

......assuming A320 (therefore short haul), much as above:

If verified, land ASAP

[ZeBedie]

A bit of a long chance that you have O2 failure and smoke or decompression on the same flight? With that in mind, maybe complete the flight?

Why no ECAM warning for O2 loss? Bottle pressure is monitored so it would have cost nothing to incorporate.

[Bula]

One flight crew member must use the portable oxy bottle.


Things to consider:

1. Flight above 25 000' - you no longer have a donning mask.
2. Are you able to provide you cabin crew access to o2 if you did depressurised but LSALT prevent flight @ 10 000' or below.


If you have enough o2 on board to meet the above, continue. Though personally if it were a "longer sector" with a engineering port enroute I would divert.

[vilas]

TopBunk
It is a tragic situation. But I suppose all other decisions were correctly taken. Mainly on discovery of uncontrollabeility of fire a/c was turned towards nearest land mass/airport and descent to 10000ft was begun. After this really there is no option. Staying in burning a/c is not an option. You will ditch and hope for the best. Offcourse ditching will be done closure to any ship or land mass.You need lots of luck to come out of this.

[catiamonkey]

It is monitored. It is an ECAM Advisory at 800 PSI, so the page will come up automatically and it will flash. First, as the FCOM tells you to, check to make sure all masks are off. 800 PSI is enough to dispatch normally with two crew. If you've been paying attention an amber frame at 1500 PSI will come on too, meaning you need to check conditions for dispatch.

You can activate the OXYGEN CREW SUPPLY switch if the leak is downstream of the shutoff valve and turn it back on if the need arises. Watch for REGUL LO PR while the system is on. However, a sudden loss likely means the overpressure disc burst and you've dumped all your O2 overboard.

[TSIO540]

Are we assuming that the CREW OXY switch is on?

[CMpilot1]

Affirmative..

[3holelover]

Check the blinker thingy at the mask holder to confirm.... then do as the book says.

Then, if someone (mtc) actually signed out your airplane with no crew O2, or bottle valve was closed, they need a talking to!

[italia458]

Then, if someone (mtc) actually signed out your airplane with no crew O2, or bottle valve was closed, they need a talking to!

You don't check O2 before flight? I always check quantity and ensure the mask is fitting/operating properly.

[3holelover]

That's one of the first things I check when I get in the airplane... but I'm in mtc.

[ZeBedie]

It is monitored. It is an ECAM Advisory at 800 PSI, so the page will come up automatically and it will flash.

Not on all aircraft - only the newer ones.

[autoflight]

2. Different Scenario: You are at FL350 mid Atlantic and the cabin crew report a fire in the cabin behind a panel. You know statistically that you might only have 15 minutes if the fire is not put out. What do you do?

TopBunk,

You have likely spent some time looking at critical scenarios. Discussion re such uncontrollable fire (or smoke) is not enthusiastically embraced by the pilot community, though I have seen one significant reply. It is insufficient for pilots to claim that every situation will be so different that it is impossible to set rules for every case. I had a well developed basic plan when I was still flying and have never found anything on pprune that really tackled the best way to position for the actual ditching or landing.

FM procedures plus Land or Ditch ASAP is an over simplification and your scenario is deserving of its own thread.